Editor’s note: This will be a reoccurring column every other Friday. The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of The Smoke Signal or its staff.

You sit in class attentively listening to the teacher. You have work to be completed and a lesson to learn. Your write down your work, take your test, talk to your friends about the homework, or wait for the class to begin. It is a regular day.

“Lockdown. Lockdown. Go into lockdown.”

The loud speaker shocks you and the sound is triggering. You know exactly what you need to do; roll your eyes and walk over to the wall.

You continue to talk to your friends. Hopefully someone else will turn the lights off. You don’t feel like doing any extra work.

The wall is already full and you now have to sit in an uncomfortable spot on the floor. Why couldn’t you have been in a room where the wall was larger to fit more people? Guess you can just complain about it to your friends right now in the middle of the lockdown.

The room is dark but you are talking as the school is in lockdown. You continue to talk and don’t plan on stopping.

Do you see the problem here?

It is unfortunate that our society has normalized lockdowns to a degree that we must have one every month. Lately, we’ve had to modify our lockdowns and “spice them up” in case the shooter decides to hold the office hostage or set off the fire alarm.

People during a lockdown are giggling to each other and are so absorbed in trivial matters rather than focusing on what they are doing. What you should be doing is protecting yourself from a life-threatening danger.

Yes, we have police officers at the front door that walk around the school monitoring the hallways; however, there are always more precautions that can be taken. You never know what could happen.

Some people will say, “Oh, it will never happen in our school,” or “If someone comes into this classroom with a gun, oh well.”

This type of attitude is really absurd and shocking. I am pretty sure that any school that had a shooting thought it would never happen to them. I can guarantee that those students in a school shooting were terrified and prayed that they would not be shot. The idea that you would laugh and joke during a lockdown is also disrespectful to the people who have lost their lives during a school shooting.

I am seriously dumbfounded at the attitudes and actions of students during a lockdown.

Do you not get struck with fear the minute you hear the loudspeaker go off? Do you not fear for your life?

Coming from someone who loves to joke and loves to turn towards comedy in times of stress, a lockdown is not the place, nor the time.

It is time to be quiet no matter what type of situation. It is time to take precautions because you never know the circumstance. It is time to shut your mouth and hope you make it out alive.

You never know if it could be you, so why don’t you take it seriously?